Representation by Leicestershire & Rutland Area Ramblers (Leicestershire & Rutland Area Ramblers)
- Date submitted
- 25 January 2023
- Submitted by
- Non-statutory organisations
The Ramblers organisation, a national charity which includes the Leicestershire & Rutland Area, works to help everyone enjoy the pleasures and benefits of walking, and to enhance and protect the places where people walk. It is committed at every level to encouraging and supporting walking, protecting and expanding Public Rights of Way (PROW) and access land, and protecting the beauty of the countryside and other areas. We recognise the threat posed to our countryside by climate change, something which could adversely affect many of our cherished landscapes in the future. As a responsible body, the Ramblers supports measures to mitigate this threat by switching to renewable resources of energy - including the use of photovoltaic technology - where appropriate. However, it is our view that the Mallard Pass Solar Farm proposal is certainly not appropriate for this part of Rutland and South Lincolnshire, and we wish to make a strong objection. If allowed to proceed, this development will spoil the public's enjoyment of a large swathe of open countryside. Even with mitigation measures, its sheer size and scale will seriously compromise the visual appeal of this rural landscape for all those who use its network of footpaths and bridleways. There are at least four PROW that will pass through or run alongside the proposed Solar Farm, making up several kilometres of footpaths and bridleways in total. This includes a section of the Macmillan Way, one of the region's prestigious National Trails. The construction phase alone, estimated to take at least two years, is going to create some significant problems in terms of access and recreation, with path closures/diversions necessary for long periods, and the constant presence across the site of works traffic and machinery noise. The developers admit that the "... construction phase is likely to have an adverse, local, temporary and medium term impact on the severance of non-motorised users of the ... PROW network" (Environmental Statement/Highways & Access/9.6.9). Once completed, and in mitigation, the hundreds of hectares of solar panels, with associated security fencing and inverters, are, apparently, to be screened eventually with hedging to reduce the negative visual effects. However, it will be several years before that hedging is of sufficient height to provide even adequate screening, and, again as the developers admit, the huge array of panels will still be visible from some points along the affected paths. In summary, the traditional character of this gently undulating and open landscape, offering expansive views across largely arable fields, will be changed for the worse if this proposal succeeds - to the detriment of all those who enjoy using the existing public paths.